Iran Most Active in OPCW as Biggest Victim of Chemical Weapons: Minister
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami said the Islamic Republic, as the biggest victim of chemical attacks, has been most active in the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
In a statement released on Friday on the anniversary of the 1987 chemical bombing of the northwestern city of Sardasht by the Iraqi army under former dictator Saddam Hussein, Hatami said despite West’s attempts to cover-up its role in equipping Saddam with chemical weapons and downgrading the heinous crime, many countries acknowledged that more than 20,000 Iranians were killed by Saddam’s chemical attacks.
The Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Convention (PCWC) owes its existence to a large extent to global revulsion at Saddam’s crimes against the Iranian nation, the minister noted.
“Since the beginning of the convention (PCWC), we have witnessed the active and effective presence of the Islamic Republic of Iran as the biggest victim of chemical attacks, and this is admitted by everyone,” he added.
Located in Iran's northwestern province of West Azarbaijan, Sardasht was the third city in the world after Japan’s Hiroshima and Nagasaki to become a target of Weapons of Mass Destruction.
On June 28 and 29, 1987, Iraqi bombers attacked 4 crowded parts of Sardasht with chemical bombs and engulfed its residents, women and children, young and old, with fatal chemical gases.
The attacks killed 116 citizens and injured over 5,000.